John Cleese Divorce Pricey, But Satisfying

John Cleese is divorcing his third wife, and he says “It’s going to be very, very expensive, but it will be worth every penny.” Hell yes, it’s going to be expensive: he was ordered to pay his wife Â£77,500 a month. For those keeping up with exchange rates and our dollar woes on this side of the pond, that’s $4.7 million in American dollars. If you round up.

Now wouldn’t you hate to be the lawyer who has to deal with Cleese in court? I’m not saying this because he’s Basil Fawlty or any number of hardasses in various Python sketches. I’m saying that because he strikes me as not only witty as hell but smart as hell as well. I love this bit from where his wife’s lawyer stated that she’s got, essentially, nothing at all to live on: “Mr Cleese countered by saying he was ‘puzzled’ that she could afford to stay in a Â£600-a-night room at the Carlyle Hotel in New York if she were broke.”

Nice. Well, you would think comedians would know better after Dr. Murphy’s treatise on marriage back in 1987. I’m just saying.